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Researchers at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center have developed a new form of data storage that could potentially survive for billions of years. The research consists of nanostructured glass that can record digital data in five dimensions using femtosecond laser writing.

The crystal storage contains 360TB per disc and is stable at up to 1,000 degrees celsius. You record data using an ultra-fast laser that produces short and intense pulses of light — on the order of one quadrillionth of a second each — and it writes the file in fused quartz, in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometers. Reading the data back requires pulsing the laser again, and recording the polarization of the waves with an optical microscope and polarizer. The five dimensions consist of the size and orientation in addition to the three-dimensional position of the nanostructures.

The group coined the storage the “Superman memory crystal” after the crystals found in the Superman films.

“It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations,” professor Peter Kazansky, from the Optoelectronics Research Center, said in a statement. “This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilization: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

The group says the crystals have a virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature, or 13.8 billion year lifespan at 190 degrees Celsius (hey, that’s the age of the Universe). In 2013, the researchers first stored a 300K text file in five dimensions using the same technology. So far, the group has encoded major documents from human history like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Newton’s Opticks, the Magna Carta, and the King James Bible as digital copies that could theoretically survive humans on our planet.

There’s no word yet on the speed of data storage or the cost of the materials or lasers necessary to create these crystals; we imagine they’re not something you’re going to be able to order from Newegg next week. Nonetheless, the group plans to present the research at the International Society for Optical Engineering Conference in San Francisco this week. It says the storage could be useful for national archives, museums, libraries, and other organizations with tremendous amounts of data to store.

Back in August, a team of scientists presented a way to use genetic material — DNA — to store virtually unlimited amounts of data for 2,000 years or more. DNA storage is known to be extremely slow, even with modern, high-throughput sequencing. But like the Superman memory crystals described above, we’re talking about massive archival data storage, not booting into Fallout 4 more quickly.

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Eventually we will forget everything they wrote on those crystals, even how to read out of them…

Ibos Meta

There won’t be a “we” in the first place. Humans won’t exist in 13.8 billion years, maybe only our DNA stored somewhere by the natural or artificial postcursors. Most probably there won’t be any life form left in the universe by then, that if the universe still exists.

Marco

I wouldn’t go that far. After all, depending on which end-of-the universe theory you ascribe to, the conditions for life in the universe could exist for a very long time. Take heat death of the universe for example, which should still provide for new star creation for trillions of years (between 1 and 100 trillion, depending on the estimate). Even then there’d be black holes that could conceivably be harnessed for energy by an advanced race for even longer after that.

Ibos Meta

That’s why I said “postcursors”, but still, in my eyes it’s not that probable.

Bri

What if we already did????

Marko Novak

What if we are actually 10.000 years older, and this here is some kind of entertaining Matrix, (deep sleep during work timeout , ala inception)????

XenoSilvano

Then get me the #### out!

Marko Novak

Well we all will eventually… ;)

bob lebart

That glass hockey puck may survive 1000 d Celsius, and 13.8 billion years at 190 d Celsius, but it won’t survive a guy with a sledgehammer!!

Magnus Blomberg

Yes and also they usually come around a lot more often then once every 13.8 billion years.

Riely Rumfort

I remember long ago memory crystals were lazer etched. I thiught it was the future of data storage and still do. Such a transparent 3D matrix always made sense to me.

ncgmac

Yep. I was just thinking I remember a memory crystal they were working on in the early nineties. They thought in 10 years it would change everything. Well, there ya go. Although for archival purposes this seems intriguing. Of course, the hardware and software to read/write it will probably lose funding in a few years and the crystal will sit in some closet like and Indian Jones movie.

Riely Rumfort

Or they’ll be the future.

Ekard

I still can’t grasp 5D… what are the extra 2 dimensions beyond what we consider 3D. Are the other 3 dimensions the same as what we consider 3D (Height, Width and Depth)?

I live in 4D and can only manipulate 3D… guess my experience isn’t up to snuff.

bob lebart

The other 2 “dimensions” they are advertising is “size and orientation”, size being, I assume, the size of the file they are saving to the glass…if so, it doesn’t seem like a “dimension” in the way science usually -tries- to describe dimensions, BUT I COULD BE WRONG.

Bruce Evans

Bob is correct, the 5 ‘dimensions’ are really 5 ‘components’ of identifying the data and/or its storage location. Imagine a five dimensional Excel spreadsheet that categorized things. At face value, excel is only two dimensional, so how do you get more? As a cheap example if you made an excel spreadsheet, where in each cell is stored an excel spreadsheet, you have just made an additional dimension! More proof of Microsoft’s plan to rule the world – LOL!

traderjoel

They probably meant 5 degrees of freedom rather than 5 dimensions.

dave

Its another dimension not in Cartesian space but in size of object and orientation. Dimensions just define the number of available coordinate spaces

Wall

Normally, when you think of dimentions, you think of visual dimentions, length, width, and height. In reality, the term is more broad, and means the number of variables in a problem.
In this case, you have 5 variables. Length, width, height, and i’m guessing color and polarity are the other 2.

The Watson

Now I wonder if the laser reader has been used on a legitimate crystal skull? I would be reading allot of crystalline based objects… Good news for storage, guessing it will be stored somewhere on lunar surface, with reader ?

Rentier

We should charge the aliens for getting all our information and knowledge.

Bryan Ewbank

I can see it now.. “Hello, I am a human. I have much information, and if you would send me $50000, I will let you have all of it in return”. ETspam?

vfxant

Lol, more like:
Hello, I am a Human Nigerian Prince. I can see you’ve accessed one of my minor data troves. This file bank is nothing compared to the ones I’ve inherited from my family. Theres just one problem, I need to temporarily store this massive databank somewhere else while it decrypts. Now, if you’ll just drop your shields and allow me access to a port…

RandomMonkey

Tbh, even if this did happen, if they have the tech to fly into space and retrieve said disk then I wouldent count on them needing to understand and use said information, Id say they should charge us for littering in space xD

Bryan Ewbank

“Kings James” Bible?

Chris Roberts

That is the spoof version where everything is made up, or is it the other way around, I forget?

Bruce Evans

Must be LeBron’s plan to win an NBA championship they’re talking about!

The glass disks could also.. be image projectors.. with sound.. and how many movies could be saved.. with complete indexes.. and then side industries open up.. bringing new devices into our homes… wonderful eh??

Allan Stark

Can the system store holograms?

Chris Daly

What the fuck does superman have to do with data storage? If we’re talking about Kryptonite, fine, but otherwise, stfu.

XenoSilvano

The Sunstone Crystal in the Superman universe has the properties of a computer system.

There was also a crystal in Superman and Superman II that stores almost everything that there is to be known about Krypton.

Chris Daly

“All we’ve learnt will not be forgotten!”…Lest society collapses and the technology to retrieve that data disappears, which would be really the only reason we should be concerned about permanently storing data for billions of years.

shadow

Wait.. Let me get this straight.. “You record data using an ultra-fast laser that produces short and intense pulses of light — on the order of one quadrillionth of a second each”..
That means one dot is written every 1e-15th second.. That means it writes 1e15 dots pr second. One of these dots would have different states, similar to 0 and 1 in electrical computers. There would be a ton of different states, but lets imagine every dot only has two states. 1e15 dots/s would therefore be 1e15 bits/s writing speed.
1e15 bits/s ≈ 113.69 terabytes/s…
And that’s only with two different states, so if you count in all the different states the dots can have, that number would be multiplied by a lot..

Did I misunderstand “You record data using an ultra-fast laser that produces short and intense pulses of light — on the order of one quadrillionth of a second each” or something?.. O.O

Edit:
Checked the researchers’ site. They say every spot stores 3 bites..
That would mean 1e15 dots/s would be 3e15 bits/s..
3e15 bits/s ≈ 341 terabytes/s.
It would take 1.05 seconds to fill that small disc at full speed O.O

Nalse-Fame

I would assume multiple passes would need to be made to ensure proper transfer of data. When they are transmitting such a high volume of data, there is bound to be multiple major errors.

Stephen Paden

If they store everything located in the library of congress, my book will survive 13.8 billion years longer than I do.

Brian Topping

Now they just have to put the things where someone can find them! hahah

ckandersen

What about the technical schematics for the encoder/decoder? Not much good having a treasure trove of data and a worn-out player! Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode were the last man on earth stepped on his glasses and could no longer read books.

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